PHOENIX — An Oakland judge was among nine hostages held Thursday at a central Phoenix high-rise where, authorities said, a man pulled a gun during a legal proceeding.

The seven-hour standoff ended peacefully Thursday night when the gunman surrendered and his captives were released, a police spokesman said.

Mary Miller Cracraft, associate chief administrative law judge in the National Labor Relations Board San Francisco office, said Thursday night that one of her employees — identified as Judge Jay Pollack of Oakland by other sources, was among the hostages.

Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Hill said the gunman and hostages were inside a hearing room in a NLRB office on the building’s 18th floor.

Hill said negotiations between police and the gunman resolved the situation.

“We were able to figure out a way to show him his wife and sister in a very safe manner,” Hill said. “It was a very tenuous situation.”

Police said George L. Curran, 42, of Chandler, a Phoenix suburb, pulled a gun during a legal proceeding and took as many as nine people hostage. One female captive later escaped and another was allowed to leave.

Commander Kim Humphrey said police do not know a motive yet: “Maybe he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe he didn’t like somebody,” Humphrey said.

Pollack is an associate law judge and was in Phoenix to preside over a trial, Cracraft said. The NLRB San Francisco office oversees labor practice cases in states west of the Mississippiriver, she added.

The Arizona Republic reported that Pollack was hearing a case involving termination of two employee from an upscale women’s clothing store in Scottsdale.

The newspaper reported on its Web site that one of the hostages had called his girlfriend, a Republic reporter, to outline the gunman’s demands.

According to the newspaper, Chris Doyle told his girlfriend that the gunman wanted to see his wife and sister as soon as he walked out. If that happened, he would surrender, the paper reported.

Cornele Overstreet, an NLRB regional director, told the local Fox TV affiliate that the gunman first “shouted out something” and grabbed a secretary as she was coming out of a bathroom.

Sioux Jeffrey, who works in another office on the same floor, said a man from the labor office came to her workplace “and told us to evacuate. ‘There’s a man with a gun.'”

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